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Sykes Into The Points In England

Tom Sykes scored points for 14th place in race two at his home round of Silverstone, remaining 16th in the overall championship standings after two long races in round ten of the championship.

Tom was 18th in race one, but after some changes to his technical set-up he improved his finishing position in race two, after what was an overcast but dry day of high-speed action in the English countryside.

Sykes praised the power of his Kawasaki's engine at this track, which allowed him to qualify 13th in Superpole, and he thinks the team have found a good direction to work in for the future.

Akira Yanagawa was riding as a stand-in for Chris Vermeulen and had a tough raceday trying to get himself up to speed on his World Superbike spec Ninja ZX-10R machine. From 25th place on the grid he improved to 19th in both races, and therefore missed out on scoring points.

The next outing for the team in World Superbike will be at round 11, at the Nürburgring in Germany, in early September.

Tom Sykes: "We changed some geometry on the bike set-up between race one and race two and that helped us. I am struggling on the mid point to the exit of the corners, which is a shame because if we can turn the bike the way we want the Kawasaki engine is really strong. We have proved that this year inplaces like Monza. It is a little bit frustrating to see some other guys up there because I know I can run with them, but it is just one of those things. Hats off to the team, they keep trying new things. We improved our race time in race two by nine seconds, which is a positive. The way we went in race two is definitely a move in the right direction and we need to go further and explore the limits of that."

Akira Yanagawa: "I improved my lap times today but I think I just needed more practice and more time to get used to the tyres and this WSB specification machine. Overall I am happy because I did not crash and I got some experience with new technical parts and these Pirelli tyres. It demands a different riding style. The experience coming back to WSB was enjoyable but I wanted to get better results."